Cincinnati's city manager says moving the District Five police headquarters to an existing city-owned building is the quickest and most cost-effective solution to problems with the current facility.
Harry Black spoke to City Council's Law and Public Safety Committee Monday about the issues of building a new facility."You would be talking about acquiring property, that's a long and lengthy process," Black said. "Then you would probably have to deal with some demolition implications of whatever property you purchase. Again, both of those would be more money and more time just to get to the point of building something."
Officers and staff have outgrown the current District Five location and some say there are health concerns with the facility.
Black said renovating the old Permit Central building at 3300 Central Parkway can be completed in 18 to 24 months. He said that work would likely cost $7 to $10 million.
Council Member Kevin Flynn supports that plan. He said council could have voted last year to deal with District Five, but in his words selected "wants" versus "needs."
"Rather than spending over $12 million of capital dollars on four miles of abandoned railroad track to build a bicycle track, we could have spent that money on a new District Five," Flynn said.
Flynn said District Five is a need for the city and public safety has to come first.
Building a new District Five building would likely cost $17 to $20 million dollars and take two to three years to complete.
